Malcolm Fraser

Malcolm Fraser (21 May 1930-20 March 2015) was Prime Minister of Australia from 11 November 1975 to 11 March 1983, succeeding Gough Whitlam and preceding Bob Hawke. He was a member of the Liberal Party of Australia.

Biography
John Malcolm Fraser was born in Melbourne, Australia in 1930, and he studied at Oxord before being elected to the federal parliament in 1955 for the Liberal Party of Australia. He became Minister for the Army in Harold Holt's government, the time of Australia's controversial involvement in the Vietnam War. Under John Gorton, he was Minister for Education and Science from 1968 to 1969 and Minister for Defense from 1969 to 1971, until he resigned due to differences with Gorton. In March 1975, he became Liberal leader and his Liberal/Country coalition won the December election. Commanding a majority in both houses of Parliament until 1980, he was less reformist than his predecessor. He improved the relationship between the federal government and the individual states and confronted the bellicose trade unions with an austere economic policy. Strikes decreased dramatically, and inflation was reduced to below 10% in the late 1970s. He promoted the exploitation of Australia's mineral resources, so that the country benefited in full from the rise of commodity prices in 1979. He sought to improve Australia's relationship with its Asian neighbors, and in 1979 persuaded Margaret Thatcher to accept an independent, multi-racial Zimbabwe. The country plunged into another recession after 1979, caused by the second oil-price shock and compiunded by the overvaluation of the Australian dollar, which reduced agricultural and mineral exports further. He called an election to exploit the Australian Labor Party's perceived disarray, but lost after Labor rallied unanimously behind its new leader, Bob Hawke. He died in 2015.